Streetlight EPC - New lighting in Kalmar

The Municipality of Kalmar has during the past three years carried out an intense work, across departments, with the purpose to modernize, adapt and improve street- and park lighting and thereby also achieve an energy and cost-efficient installation. The work has resulted in an internal “Lighting Council”, a “Lighting programme”, new LED installations and a focus on LCC, as an evaluation tool, and new possibilities for financial systems for the upcoming renovation work.

Street lighting is an important tool to achieve other purposes and goals set up in a municipalities or cities different steering document (eg. plans for sustainable transport, safety and security, energy efficiency, tourism etc ) and a cities or a municipalities streetlight is there for important from many perspectives, eg.:

It shall contribute to a safely guidance for citizens and visitors – on foot, on bikes or in different vehicles -and it shall be as equal as possible for all, no matter gender, age or disability

It shall contribute to increased physical activity and health all year around - games and athletics, walks, running etc

It shall create landmarks and identity

It must be cost effective in operation and maintenance - in order for the municipality or city to take responsibility for an economic and ecological sustainable resource conservation

But in order to use the streetlight installation for these purposes you must define – for who do we light our city and why?

The Municipality of Kalmar has described its vision and goals in the streetlight programme, a comprehensive and thorough document that will guide and direct the development of a new lighting system.

EU project guide Streetlight re-investments to become profitable - with new technology and innovative financing systems

In 2014 Kalmar Municipality joined the EUs IEE-project Streetlight EPC. Through the project Kalmar Municipality has had the possibility to get new knowledge about effective planning of re-investments, bundling projects, procure LED and use LCC as an effective evaluation tool. The staff have got an introduction to EPC (Energy performance contracts) educations which also has been offered to possible ESCOs (Energy Service Companies).

“When the project started in 2014, I had already some experience in LED, I was not skeptical about technology ore worried about its long-time quality. After participating in various training and listening to experts, I became even more convinced of LEDs opportunities and that we have to be strong ambassador for the technology both within our own organization and when I meet others” – Mr Tomas Lexinger, Production Service Manager, declares.

During 2014–2017 a number of re-investments have also been carried out in Kalmar, most of them during 2016. The main reason for these reinvestments has been that an old streetlight system, in a particular area or street, have been in poor conditions and / or high have had operating and maintenance costs. The re-investments have mainly been handled by Mr Håkan Olofsson (streetlight technician) one of the participants in Streetlight EPC project.

“Through the Streetlight EPC project I have had the opportunity to learn from and be inspired by the experiences of other European partners and other Swedish streetlight owners as well as I have been able to get educated from different experts. This has been very useful in my work”– Mr Olofsson says.

Mr Olofsson describes that the benefits of the new facilities are: better lit areas where visitors can more easily orient themselves and may feel a greater sense of security. By using LED lamps a high energy efficiency and hence cost reduction is achieved. Several projects have also been planned cooperation with other parties planned work - for example, replacement of cables whish saves both time and money.